The invention relates in general to licensing objects and more specifically to a method and system for indicating the status of a license.
Numerous software applications exist for performing various types of functions on computers. Software distribution schemes allow users to download software through communication networks such as the Internet. Due to competition in the market, many software manufactures have used these distribution schemes to provide a free trial application to a potential customer allowing the potential customer to use the software application for a limited time or in a limited capacity. If satisfied, the customer may purchase the full commercial version of the software or may purchase a license to continue using the trial software application.
Conventional licensing schemes, however, are limited in several ways. If the licensing techniques provide a functionally limited version of the commercial software application, the software provider risks that the trial version will be adequate for the potential customer. If the trial version is severely limited in functionality, the software provider risks that the potential customer will not fully appreciate the capabilities of the commercial software. On the other hand, if the trial version is not limited enough, the potential customer will not buy the commercial version and will continue using the trial version eliminating a potential sale.
A licensing scheme involving a time limited version of the commercial product is limited in that trial time may be too long or too short. If the trial version is set to expire too early, the potential customer may not have an opportunity to adequately examine the software product. If the expiration of the trial software is set to far in the future, the potential customer may use the software to complete a project and may not desire to purchase the commercial version.
Drafting, graphic and other visual software applications are particularly sensitive to the issues discussed above. Most graphic applications use numerous drawing objects that typically need to be updated periodically. Further, the large libraries of drawing objects may need to be expanded to provide an adequate database of contemporary objects.
Therefore, there exists a need for method and system for licensing software, digital objects, and other digital data that allows a potential customer to sample the product with a maximum functionality while maintaining customer motivation to purchase a license.
In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, a licensing management system and method allows a graphics program to be sampled by a potential customer while maintaining a motivation of the potential customer to purchase a license. Drawing objects not having a valid license can be used within the graphics application in the same capacity as a licensed object except that the unlicensed objects are marked with tag indicating that the object is not licensed. The tag in the exemplary embodiment is text indicia printed across the object indicating that the object is not licensed. The tag is digitally connected to the object and cannot be separated without a proper license.
In addition to a tag associated with each unlicensed object, a drawing created with an unlicensed object is also marked with a tag indicating that the drawing was created without a license. The potential customer may continue to use and sample the software application and various libraries without obtaining a license. The potential customer, however, is motivated to purchase a license due to the inconvenience of the tags. In addition to unsightly tags found in the drawing, the potential customer will be motivated to obtain a license to avoid the appearance of impropriety when displaying the drawings in a business relationship.
This embodiment allows a user to have multiple licenses corresponding to different aspects of the graphics program. The user only pays for specific requested libraries and is not forced into paying a single licensing fee to obtain unwanted libraries or objects. The user can sample libraries without purchasing a license. Documents created with an unlicensed library will include the tags attached to unlicensed objects. The tags are removed, however, when a valid license is obtained.
In the exemplary embodiment, the user obtains immediate feedback of the licensing status when accessing libraries. If the user opens a library that is not licensed to the user, a message box is displayed indicating the library is unlicensed. When an unlicensed object is selected, the tag is visually displayed over the object as discussed above.
A valuable feature of the exemplary embodiment is that the license is not easily transferable from one user to another. Although a library van be transferred from one processor to another, a license associated with the library is embedded within application code and is difficult to locate. Further, in a preferred embodiment of the invention, the license is encrypted using the hard drive serial number of the user""s computer.
Another feature of the exemplary embodiment is that the license for each library can be time limited. An expired, but otherwise valid, license allows the user to continue using the library without having tags displayed. A library opened with a valid license before the expiration of the license can be opened without invoking the unlicensed process of displaying tags on the objects of the library as long as the license can be located in memory. Therefore, the library can be used indefinitely if it had been opened with a valid license and the license exists in memory even if the license has expired.
An advantage of the exemplary embodiment is that newly developed libraries can be distributed to potential purchases on a subscription basis. A subscription to a particular library set results in the user receiving newly developed libraries related to the particular license during a predetermined period. The objects within new libraries downloaded by the user and opened during the license (subscription) duration will not contain the tags.